Further to my report on the 2014 Mere Anglicanism Conference, I call your attention to a marvelous interview with Christian philosopher Alvin Plantinga that appeared on Sunday's "The Stone" blog of the New York Times. Philosopher Garry Gutting of Notre Dame University conducts the interview, which is entitled: "Is Atheism Irrational"?

Prof. Plantinga gets right to the point: In the British newspaper The Independent, the scientist Richard Dawkins was recently asked the following question: "If you died and arrived at the gates of heaven, what would you say to God to justify your lifelong atheism?" His response: "I'd quote Bertrand Russell: 'Not enough evidence, God. Not enough evidence.'" But lack of evidence, if indeed evidence is lacking, is no grounds for atheism. No one thinks there is good evidence for the proposition that there are an even number of stars; but also, no one thinks the right conclusion to draw is that there are an uneven number of stars. The right conclusion would instead be agnosticism.